


Cusp

by Jaydee_Faire



Category: Captive Prince - C. S. Pacat
Genre: Fluffy Angst, Gen, Incest, Laurent being adorable, M/M, Mentions of Regent grossness, Pre-Canon, is that a tag I can use, mentions of akielon undergarments or lack thereof, slightly more than a whiff of unrequited incest
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-11
Updated: 2016-06-11
Packaged: 2018-07-14 12:19:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,277
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7170779
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jaydee_Faire/pseuds/Jaydee_Faire
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Auguste and a young Laurent have a conversation about becoming a man, and what it is to love someone.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Cusp

"Did you see the Akielons? They're ghastly, aren't they?"

Auguste smiled indulgently at his younger brother, bright-eyed and butter-blond, looking like a little toy soldier in his sized-down armor, so shining and new that there wasn't so much as a fingertip's smudge on it. "They're certainly a sight to behold," he said, lifting the tent flap so Laurent could pass beneath it.

"I saw the ones at the front. The lead Akielon, the keye, um, keye-something--"

"Kyros." Auguste snagged his brother's shoulder as he went past so he could undo the laces on the boy's breastplate. 

"Right. That. All that skin showing! It was disgusting, like they want us to look at them." Laurent gathered the curls of his hair in both hands, held it up and away from the nape of his neck while Auguste worked. "Imagine tromping about on a battlefield in nothing more than a bedsheet with a pin stuck in it, while everyone stares at you? "

_"You_ were certainly doing your fair share of staring," Auguste said, trying not to smile.

"What if there's a sudden gust of wind, or-- or a stiff breeze, or what if one of them drops their sword and has to bend over to pick it up-- is it true they don't wear undergarments?"

This time Auguste did laugh. "Laurent, why on earth would I know something like that?"

"You know everything," Laurent said accusingly. He looked down at his feet a moment, then blurted, "Father and Uncle tell you everything. They don't tell me _anything."_

"I know quite a bit less than everything," Auguste said gently, freeing Laurent of his halved breastplate and starting in on the laces of his jacket-- in a terrible disarray, as usual: Laurent allowed no one to do up his laces but himself, no matter how looped and bunched the result was. As the halves of the jacket parted beneath his fingers, he said, "It's true that Father tells me a lot of things, but they're things I need to know. Some of them are things I desperately wish I had never learned."

"Like what?" Laurent asked, head dipping forward.

Auguste leaned close, his lips nearly brushing the boy's ear. "Akielons," he whispered, "wrestle each other in the nude for sport."

Laurent's head turned sharply, mouth open in a scandalized _O._

"It's true," Auguste grinned. "They cover each other with oil first, and climb all over each other in front of a hundred spectators."

"Oh!" Laurent took a breath, let it out, took in another, as if trying to process this. "Oh, how awful. Like pets." Then he lifted his hand to his mouth, chewing on his thumbnail.

"Yes, I supp--" Auguste paused. "And how do you know about Uncle's entertainments?"

Laurent said nothing, but his cheeks had already begun to flush red. 

_"Laurent,"_ Auguste said severely, "you've been sneaking about where you don't belong again?"

"I didn't _sneak,"_ Laurent said, glancing up at Auguste and then away, a flicker of golden lashes. "Uncle said it would be all right. I sat next to him for all of it, I didn't bet any money, though I wanted to. Uncle wouldn't let me, though I knew for certain Councillor Herenna's pet Uriel would win because--" he halted at Auguste's expression. "...Uncle said it would be all right," he said again, softer. "Because I'm thirteen. And a man."

Auguste let out a long breath. He pulled Laurent's jacket off of him, draped it over the back of a chair though he knew it out to be brushed and hung out to keep from creasing. Standing there in his white undershirt, pink-cheeked and pouting, Laurent looked a good deal younger than thirteen. But what was he to say? He certainly couldn't keep time from moving forward, from dragging his shy, bookish younger brother into war and court intrigue and, gods help him, the attentions of pets looking for a royal lap to keep warm. 

"And Uncle was kind enough to explain to you what pets are for, wasn't he?" Auguste asked, sitting down on a low bench.

Laurent's blush took on a different tone. "...Yes."

Auguste waited, then, "Well?"

"They're for sex," Laurent mumbled, desperately looking anywhere but at Auguste. "Uncle asked me what I'd thought of it. The entertainment. And the pets. Asked me if I'd wanted one of my own." He looked up, finally, blue eyes wide. "I told him no."

"Because you're a bit young for it," Auguste said, wondering when he'd have the chance to have a private word with his Uncle.

"Because I have you," Laurent said, and Auguste's world ground to a halt.

There was a long silence, in which Auguste supposed the look on his face was less than friendly, because in only a few moments Laurent's eyes had filled with tears. "Sex is for someone that you love," Laurent said, lifting his chin. "I couldn't love a pet. I only love _you."_

"I--" Auguste stared, then blinked forcefully, trying to keep any of his conflicting emotions from showing on his face. "I-- oh, Laurent." He sighed out a shaky breath. "Oh, _Laurent._ Come here." He held out an arm, and Laurent was quick to come and wrap himself in his brother's embrace, snug against his shoulder. 

"I told Uncle, and he laughed at me," Laurent said sulkily. "He said you only like girls."

"I'm afraid Uncle is right," Auguste said, pulling his fingers through Laurent's hair. 

"You like _me,_ don't you?" Laurent twisted to look up at him. "And besides, I've seen you with Opal, _he's_ a boy."

"Laurent, of course I like you. But--"

"I could be your pet," Laurent said. "I think I'd like to be a pet. I could do whatever I liked, and no one would scold me for sleeping in your bed."

"You're a bit old for that as well," Auguste said. Forever with his nose in a book, Laurent was still shockingly naive about some things. "I don't think I need a pet, right now. I'd rather have a younger brother who's always getting into things and climbing apple trees that he can't get down out of."

"That was only once," Laurent objected.

"It was twice." Auguste found his fingers resting at the crook of Laurent's neck; the boy had settled heavily against him. He considered shifting away, then thought better of it: time enough for that sort of thing when they'd driven Theomedes away from Marlas. Then back to Chastillon, perhaps, where he could both speak with his Uncle and teach his little brother about some of the things he'd need to know to be a man, since he was becoming one regardless of Auguste's wishes on the subject. 

He lifted his hand, tucking a strand of hair behind Laurent's ear and hearing the boy giving almost a purr of contentment in response. "Laurent," he said softly, "you will promise me something, won't you?"

"Mm? Anything."

"Tomorrow, when we reach Marlas, I..." _Be a boy for me, for just a while longer. Be just my little brother._ "Keep to the rear, away from the fighting. I don't want to see you hurt."

"But I've only just--"

"Laurent, please. I'll have this taken care of, and then we can go home. There'll be plenty of other wars for you to fight in. Please," he said again.

"Alright. I suppose." Laurent lay his head on Auguste's shoulder again. "But you'll tell me all about it, won't you? How many Akielons you killed?"

Auguste smiled. "Yes. And I'll see about discovering whether or not they wear undergarments, though I can't imagine having to explain to the Kyros why I would want to know."

**Author's Note:**

> I like to think that Laurent really loved Auguste, but that nothing ever actually happened between them (Laurent speaks once of there being a "taint" in his family and insists that Auguste didn't have it, but says nothing about himself). My headcanon is also that Laurent was ridiculously sheltered before the rude awakening of Auguste's death. 
> 
> I honestly can't remember if Damen wore panties underneath his chiton or not.


End file.
